“Marie’s The Name His Latest Flame”
by dafuturesingingsensation
Summary: Not your regular songfic! When Jude picks Jamie at the end of Season 3, Tom is heartbroken, so he decides to go and get Jude jealous, but nearly ends up falling in love all over again with a girl named Marie. What will happen? Read to find out.
1. Prologue

Prologue

"(Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame"—an Elvis Presley song

A very old friend came by today  
'Cause he was telling everyone in town  
Of the love that he'd just found  
And Marie's the name of his latest flame

He talked and talked, and I heard him say  
That she had the longest, blackest hair  
The prettiest green eyes anywhere  
And Marie's the name of his latest flame

Though I smiled, the tears inside were a-burning  
I wished him luck, and then he said goodbye  
He was gone, but still his words kept returning  
What else was there for me to do but cry?

Would you believe that yesterday  
This girl was in my arms, and swore to me  
She'd be mine eternally  
And Marie's the name of his latest flame

Though I smiled, the tears inside were a-burning  
I wished him luck, and then he said goodbye  
He was gone, but still his words kept returning  
What else was there for me to do but cry?

Would you believe that yesterday  
This girl was in my arms, and swore to me  
She'd be mine eternally  
And Marie's the name of his latest flame

Yeah, Marie's the name of his latest flame  
Oh, Marie's the name of his latest flame…

Now, change the "Would you believe…" verse to this:

Would you believe that yesterday  
That boy was in my arms, and swore to me  
He'd be mine eternally  
Now Marie's the name of his latest flame

And you have my fanfic in a nutshell. With that alteration, the song then switches to Jude's point of view, watching Tommy fall in love with a girl named Marie. Wtf? Who on earth's Marie? If this is supposed to be a jommy, then why aren't Jude and Tommy together? These questions and more will be answered, coming up next.


	2. Are You Lonesome Tonight?

Chapter One: "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"

_"Here you are, Mr. Quincy. Have a wonderful flight."_

_Tommy absentmindedly nodded at the customary phrase spoken by the flight attendant, was handed back his ticket, and proceeded to the boarding area and sat down. He glanced around and saw a garbage can, which triggered a memory of something he needed to throw out. He stood up, took Jude's unused ticket out of his pocket, glancing down at it as he did so, hesitated, and sat down again. His fist that held the paper hardened, the knuckles showing white, and his heart was shot once more with pain, as Tommy remembered why Jude wasn't going with him._

_She had chosen Jamie, of course, yet she hadn't had the decency to tell him directly. For a full twenty-four hours after he had gotten Jude's music catalogue back for her (and Darius had driven an extremely hard bargain for it), confessed to her that he loved her, and offered her the trip to Asia, she had avoided having any sort of communication with him. It didn't take Tommy's imagination long to figure out why. In the end, all he got was a text message: "I can't. I just can't." He interpreted it a million different ways, but came up with no satisfactory conclusion other than that which he had already come to beforehand, so he went over to her house, determined to get a definite answer out of her as to why, which he certainly received._

Flashback

(doorbell rings)

Jude: (thinking to herself) What's going on? Jamie never comes by this early…Well, maybe he got some good news about studio spaces, and he just couldn't wait to tell me. Yeah, that does sound like him. (aloud while opening door) Hey Ja—Tommy. (immediately uncomfortable)

Tommy: Jude. (opens up his cell phone, shows her the text)

Jude: (sighs) Look, Tommy—

Tommy: _Jude._ Do you honestly think I wouldn't be able to tell for myself that you had chosen Jamie, if you hadn't told me face-to-face, instead of just sending me this pathetic text? You really couldn't have faced seeing me for two minutes?

Jude: No, I couldn't.

Tommy: Why not?!

Jude: Because! I knew you'd do what you're doing now.

Tommy: Which is?

Jude: Come over to my house, and try to persuade me to take you back.

Tommy: And why wouldn't I? Jude, I know for sure that you don't love Jamie. Now look me in the eyes and tell me you don't love me.

Jude: No, Tommy. It's not that easy, for either of us.

Tommy: What are you talking about?

Jude: I'm not gonna lie to you and tell you that I don't love you, but neither am I gonna go back on a choice I already made. I did what I did for a reason.

Tommy: What reason could you possibly have for not choosing me? iI'm/i the only one you love, and you know that. We both know that. So why are you doing this to us?

Jude: There is no us. You destroyed any chance we ever had.

Tommy: What?

Jude: You broke my heart way too many times, Tommy, over and over, until I can't trust you. But I know I can trust Jamie. He's never going to hurt me like you have.

Tommy: Jude, I can change.

Jude: I bet you say that to every girl. To Portia, when she found out you were cheating on her; to Sadie, when you never spent more than ten minutes out of the day with her; to every girl who's ever wanted you in her life, but all you wanted was a one-night stand.

Tommy: You're so different from all those other girls, Jude!

Jude: How?!

Tommy: Because I love you!!

Jude: Then why have you never shown me? Why have you always pretended you didn't? Why have you always hurt me so badly that I had to go back to Jamie for comfort?

Tommy: (quiets down) Jude, the only reason that I ever hurt you was that I was stupid and scared at the time; I didn't want to admit to myself that I was in love with you. But Jude, I'm past that, I'll never do it again.

Jude: It's too late, Tommy. Nothing you say's gonna work anymore. I love you, but it's just too much. Too much too late. Now, I need you to leave, and I need to stand by my decision to go with Jamie. You can go to Thailand, go through all of Asia just like you wanted, even stop through Europe while you're at it; or stay here in Toronto. I don't care. Just leave.

(Spell of silence and mutual staring at each other)

Tommy: …(leans in close and whispers in her ear) This isn't it, Harrison. I'm coming back for you. You know you're gonna want me back someday. (adjusts so that their cheeks brush as he pulls away)

(Jude can barely breathe.)

(Tommy continues to watch her intently as he goes down the steps, then gets into his car and drives away.)

(Jude slams the door shut.)

Flashback ends

_He loved her so much, and they both knew that she loved him back, yet she had still denied him. The one girl he had ever truly fallen in love with suddenly considered all his screw-ups with her more important than their love, and gone with the boy next door. What else could ever bring him so low?_ Now I understand all of those soppy love songs on the radio,_ he thought ruefully. Ne-Yo spoke true. Without love, there truly was nothing. But why did he have to learn such an oh-so-painful truth in such a way? Was this, perhaps, the best punishment for the way he had always mistreated the girls he had been with, for him to be so treated? Had Jude, then, done the right thing in turning him away?_

_…No. How could it ever be so? It wasn't that he was being selfish in thinking that she couldn't live without him; it was that he knew he couldn't live without her. But she hadn't believed him when he had stood on her doorstep and said what he said, and that he couldn't, or rather wouldn't, forgive. So now she had to learn the error of her ways by herself. As for him, he/i would igo to Thailand, and find something to distract him and kill some time until Jude fully realized what she had done by turning him away, and wanted him back. He would come back then, and only then._

_Newly resolved, he looked down at the ticket once more. He would keep it as a reminder. No, he would toss it. He didn't need to be reminded of her any more than necessary. And he would at least try to push her to the back of his mind during the trip. If she wasn't with him, why did he even need to think of her? Tommy got up and walked back over to the garbage can, tearing up the ticket into very small pieces as he did so. He stood in front of it now, and this time, without any hesitation, poured the now handful of confetti into it. He would think no more of Jude. This trip was now for him, and him alone, just as it had originally been planned. He was a free man, at least temporarily, and he fully intended to live that way, for however long it would take for Jude to want him back. The boarding call came at last, and a newly emancipated man rose to meet it._

_"Hello, Mr. Quincy."_

_"Hey." He handed over his ticket once more._

_The flight attendant looked at it, then at him again. She smiled. He did the same; he could tell what she was thinking. "Traveling alone?" she inquired playfully._

_"Yeah."_

_"That's not like you." He gave a short laugh; it was actually the truth. She went on, as if continuing a joke. "Are you going to someone…special in Thailand?"_

_"No."_

_"Are you going to look for someone special?"_

_He decided to mystify her a bit. "I don't know."_

_She began laughing. "Have a pleasant flight to Thailand, Mr. Quincy."_

_"I intend to." He gave her one final look, and she went into hysterics. Holding her stomach with one hand, she waved him through with the other. Grinning like crazy, Tommy took his ticket from her moving hand, and went through the pathway to his plane._

Meanwhile, at the same time that Tommy's plane was taking off and he resolved not to think of Jude anymore, she was thinking of him. She was with Jamie at the moment, and Paegan, in a soon-to-be recording studio, listening to them discuss which was the best way to arrange studios right next to each other so that they'd fit the most in the smallest space. It appeared that Paegan hadn't wanted to be a rock star for all of his life. He had taken architecture in college, and so was fighting Jamie on solid ground. Jude had never seen anyone who could argue so soundly with Jamie, knowing the subject as well as, or even better than, he did; so it was quite amusing to watch. It reminded her of the way she and Tommy used to fight, during mixing, over virtually each detail of every song.

Tommy was usually the one who made the initial point that started the argument, and always pointed out his years of experience in the music business as if they were reason enough for her to listen to and agree with him, and he was right in everything, but she always insisted that she knew the song better than he did; while the fact of the matter was that she really just wanted to stretch out the time they spent alone together, even if it was spent in just screaming at each other. Looking back at these events with hindsight, she mentally laughed at herself for doing such a thing, and regarded it as a childish way to release sexual tension. Then she immediately realized what she had been thinking. _What? Tommy and me? Like…that? Why am I thinking of him like that? In fact, why am I even thinking of him at all? He's in Thailand, and who knows when he'll be back. Maybe Kwest knows, perhaps I should call him. Wait; I shouldn't even care where he is. I told him myself that I wouldn't. So then, why am I worrying over him, wondering when he'll be back, and—oh, God—whether he'll bring a girl back? It'd be just like him to do that, wouldn't it, to try to spite me, and get me jealous. Not like it wouldn't work, though… No, it wouldn't matter to me. I wouldn't even care. I'm with Jamie now. Right. Jamie._

"Jamie?"

"Huh?" Jamie's head straightened up from being bent over the piece of graph paper he was now working on with Paegan.

"When are you two gonna be done with that, so we two can go out and get something to eat; you know, like a date?" She smiled engagingly.

"Sorry, babe. This is a lot of work. We have to get it to the contractor in twenty-four hours. I'd ask you to help, but…"

"Oh, you know how bad I am at math."

Paegan, still working, said, "I found that out when I asked you what was one-third of three hundred, and you couldn't answer me without a calculator."

"Hey!" Jude exclaimed, slightly offended. Jamie chuckled, however, and Jude herself couldn't help smiling. That really had happened.

"Can't help you there, Jude," Jamie smiled. "But I tell you what. Paegan and I'll try to get this done by this evening, and then we can go out. Right now, you just go home and do whatever you want. Write a song or two; that'd really help us out."

"But what'll I do without my inspiration?" Jude twined her arms around his neck, and planted a kiss on his cheek.

"You'll just have to do without for the moment, love," answered Paegan for Jamie. "I need this boy to work with me, otherwise I'll never get this done."

"That's a compliment for me, Jude. Just let me stay a few more hours, I promise I will make it worth the wait." He smiled suggestively at her.

"Then I guess I'll see you later…love." She smiled back at him, though not with the same kind of fervor.

"Bye, bye, baby."

Jude exited the studio, feeling both pleased with the way her relationship was going with Jamie and guilty for her previous thoughts. _It's so great that Jamie and I are together again. It just feels right. Now, it wouldn't be this way if I had picked Tommy. If I were with him right now, we'd be…um…doing something clean, and nothing to do with…that…at all. Girl, will you get your mind out of the gutter! You'd better stop thinking right now about being in bed with Tommy, and focus into getting into bed by yourself. (Your nasty, mentally and emotionally adulterous self.) Sleep is the only thing that's gonna stop these thoughts, that's for sure. Though that's probably because I'm gonna very vivid dreams. Very, very vivid dreams. About Tommy, oh God, not again._

She turned out not to have any fantasies in her long nap, but several in her waking hours. She kept trying to think about Jamie, but her mind kept switching over to Tommy. She tried to rationalize it, but ended up attributing it to the fact that he knew just how to turn her on, and she remembered the exact way their cheeks had brushed the last time they had met more clearly than she cared to admit. She wondered how long it would take for her to get rid of these thoughts, or even if she really ever would get rid of them, but was saved from answering by her long, pensive glance around the room catching and landing on the clock. _Oh shoot, it's getting close on to evening. I'd better get ready for my date with Jamie._ She busied herself with doing so until she was well-dressed, made up, and her hair was as well. Then she had nothing to do except wait somewhat impatiently for him to call and pick her up. She even began trying to communicate with Jamie telepathically by staring intently at the cell phone in her hand. Suddenly it rang, and she almost dropped the phone in her enthusiasm to answer it.

"Hey baby. How are you doing? Almost ready for our date?"

"Um, hey, Jude. About that." Jude's face fell simply at his tone of voice. She knew him well enough to know that when he wasn't as excited as she was about something that involved both of them, something was wrong. But she pretended that she had no idea about that and answered, "Is something wrong? C'mon, if you tried to book us at some fancy restaurant at the last minute and it didn't work out, that's no big deal, believe me."

"Um, that's not really why I called…" iGreat/i Jamie thought, inow she's making me feel even worse; I wasn't even thinking of anything like that in the first place./i "See, I was just looking at the clock, and I realized that I've just been working about five hours straight here with Paegan, so…"

"You want to come a little late."

"Yeah. Like…tomorrow evening. Look, Jude, I am so sorry that I didn't call sooner, it's just that there's so much work to do, now that there's an actual site for the studios, and I just lost track of the time…"

"No, it's totally all right. You do have a lot of stuff on your hands right now, and that's what you should be working on, with Paegan. I can't help you out with it; I'm just a distraction."

"Jude, you're not a distraction—"

"But I am keeping you from working right now, aren't I? …Look, don't worry about me; I'm fine. You go focus on your stuff."

Jamie gave a crestfallen sigh on the other end. "All right. Bye, then."

"Bye." Jude sighed herself, and looked down at her finery. _Now what? Think, what's the one thing I can do that always helps me out whenever I've been disappointed? …Of course!_ She took out her songwriting journal, opened it, flipped intentionally quickly over the first page where Tommy had written that heart-melting little note that belonged in a Hallmark card, turned to a blank page and began to write. Once she was done with the song, she took out her guitar and tried to establish a tune for it, but instead found that her own vocals did the best job of doing so. She set up her laptop to record it, and when she was finished, listened to it over and over again. She was satisfied with it, and unexpectedly remembered something she had once said to Kwest, back when he had been her producer for about a week: "Tommy always said I was prolific." _Not again!_ she agonized, and immediately decided to go to bed, not even caring whether she'd dream of Tommy or Jamie tonight.

_On the plane, Tommy was bored with the in-flight movie (it was one he'd watched once with Sadie, i.e., it was more than a year old); meanwhile, all the music stations kept playing Jude's songs. It seemed that he just couldn't get away from her. He contemplated calling her, but then wondered what he could possibly say, then of the time difference, which he wasn't even completely sure of in the first place, and then finally of his resolution. He scrolled through his phone book; Jude was at the very top. He hesitated for a moment, then his heart hardened and he pushed the button to delete the number. Continuing on his rampage, he went through his entire cell phone, throwing out every text message he had ever gotten from her and saved, and all of his missed calls that came from her. He even changed his ring tones, all of which were different Jude songs. Thanks be to technology, it didn't take very long; but when he finished, he still felt quite accomplished. "Out of cell, out of mind." At least, that was his hope._

A/N: I'm sorry for the italics being double-sided, but it fits the best that way to me.


	3. I Found Someone

Chapter Two: "I Found Someone"

--One month later--

Tommy woke up with a start, as the plane suddenly began to move up and down violently. "What's that?!"

"Just some turbulence, sir, don't worry," the flight attendant assured him. "We'll be out of it in five to ten minutes, I shouldn't wonder. Would you like anything to drink, to calm you down a bit?"

"Um, no, thank you." She nodded and left him. _Oh, right. I've felt turbulence before._ He began to mentally laugh at himself. Then he looked around. _Oh shoot, it's still nighttime. Hmm, maybe I should've asked that flight attendant for some hot chocolate, but I doubt they make it here. Oh, well._ He settled back down in his seat and rearranged his covering, also bringing up his pillow from where it had somehow slipped down to his lower back. He was sufficiently comfortable, but somehow couldn't get back to sleep. He checked his watch. _Geez, it's three hours 'til the plane lands. Figures. I'm usually lulled to sleep by the engine and wake up after everyone else has already left, but this time the dmn turbulence has got me up way too early. Maybe I should try counting sheep, or just thinking of something really, really boring. Like my trip to Thailand. _He chuckled. Thailand had been uneventful, to say the least. He had planned the entire trip five years ago, when vacationing in the middle of nowhere had sounded extremely attractive, but now he was actually craving a bit of attention; or a lot, he'd heard that the boy-band era was still alive in East Asia. Maybe he'd get a few deals on hotel stays for being who he was, get to sign a few autographs, heck, he might even meet a groupie or two. There was always something hot about Asian chicks, they were always said to do exactly what you wanted them to do… Tommy held in his laughter, and pushed those dirty thoughts to the back of his mind. He tried to get to sleep once more, and this time, he succeeded.

The flight attendant from before was now passing through the entire plane, checking on all the sleeping passengers, and was stopped near the end by a young woman pulling surreptitiously on her sleeve. "Marie, what is it?" She bent over to whisper in her little sister's ear.

"I just woke up from the turbulence."

"That's funny, so did Mr. Quincy."

"Seriously?" The flight attendant nodded. "How's he doing?"

"Fine, aside from the fact that he's traveling alone. He just fell asleep."

"Good for him," smiled Marie. "Say, Jill, you think you might manage to make a little—"

"Sure."

"Thanks." Marie grinned and watched Jill leave to go to the plane's kitchen, coming back a few minutes later with two cups of hot chocolate with marshmallows. She placed one into Marie's hand, and took a sip from her own. "Now. You wanna talk about what you're gonna be doing in Tokyo? How're you gonna get around, where're you gonna stay? If you want, I can recommend a few places."

"I told you, I'm gonna stay with Rei and her family. Didn't I?" Jill shook her head.

"Well, you remember Rei, right?"

"The girl that you did the higher education student exchange-type thing with?"

"That's the one."

"But it's over now, you're both done with college, so why are you going back to Tokyo? Don't tell me you're going to become a teacher there."

"No, I'm just going over there for summer vacation. I'm coming back home to Toronto afterwards. But, Jill, there's going to be a DBSK concert, and I just _have_ to go with her to see them."

"Why on earth did Rei have to introduce you to DBSK? Couldn't you have told her about some Canadian bands?"

"I did, I told her about Jude Harrison. But that's beside the point. I love Japan, I just wanna go over there again; surely I'm allowed?"

"All right." Jill smiled. "But you have to spend time with me for once, while you're there. I'm not gonna have my little sister fall in love with a cute Japanese boy in Tokyo and not know about it."

"Jill!"

"Sorry," Jill smilingly apologized. "So, have you called Rei? Is she going to come pick you up? Does she know the plane lands tomorrow morning?"

"No, Jill, I'm just going to get a cab and go fifty miles to her house."

"All right then, good luck with that, and good night."

"G'night, Jill." Marie sighed calmly and settled back in her seat, watching her sister go away with the mugs of hot chocolate, and she suddenly thought too late to ask of her what Tom—Mr. Quincy—had said to her. _Well,_ she reasoned, _apparently he couldn't have said anything that was really important, otherwise Jill would have mentioned it. Before, she said that he really cracked her up when she was asking for his boarding pass, so apparently he's got a great sense of humor. Maybe I should try to meet up with him in the airport. I don't think Rei will really mind; Tom Quincy's another of those famous artists I told her about. Her and Hero, me and Tom. We all love our poster boys.  
_  
In a few hours, Tommy arose with the sun, as did the other passengers, and after a typical indescribable airplane breakfast, prepared to land quite soon. He had some trouble getting his guitar down from the upper compartment, and therefore was one of the last to leave. As he neared the exit, he saw a young woman passenger embracing the flight attendants. The last to be hugged was the one that had attended on him personally, and when the girl finally let her go, she looked at him, smiled, and said, "I hope you had a pleasant flight, Mr. Quincy."

"I did, thanks."

"So," spoke up one of the flight attendants, "are you really gonna be all alone during your stay?" All of the females giggled.

"Yeah, I guess so, unless I find someone to occupy my time."

"You mean _until_," quipped the passenger, making everyone laugh, then she looked at her watch. "Oh shoot, Rei's probably right outside! All right, bye, everybody. See you soon, Jill."

"Bye," said the flight attendants, and the passenger took up her bags and walked off the plane. Tommy noted that the one he had talked with personally before put one of her hand into the "Call me" sign to the girl as she left; that was probably Jill. It suddenly came to him that the two actually looked quite similar; they were probably sisters. He watched the women look after him next, then got the idea to stop right before he got off the plane and shoot them one of his winning smiles. The effect was as he had planned. They all began screaming, and he chortled to himself as he went onto the walkway, intent on catching up with that last girl; which actually wasn't that hard: he saw her stop upon seeing him, as if to wait up for him. As he caught up with her, she smiled.

"I knew you were gonna do that," she said.

"What?"

"That stunt with the flight attendants. You just couldn't help yourself."

"Oh, you mean when I made them scream? Yeah, that was fun."

"Just so you know, those are all bona fide Little Tommy Q fangirls, so you should have heard them when they found they were gonna attend you. My eardrums were ringing for ten minutes afterwards."

"Yeah, well, I got used to it a while ago."

"So did I, I thought. But they haven't screamed like that for eight years, back when I was in high school and we all heard that Boyz Attack had broken up. But one thing that I never understood: Why did you never record a solo album? I mean, after all, _you_ were the one that left and split up the band because you thought you were good enough by yourself, so why didn't you?"

He had been asked this a good number of times in interviews, and there, he had always given some vague, evasive excuse that led to another topic and didn't really answer the question; but here, with this girl standing right in front of him and looking at him so earnestly, he wanted to give her the real reason. So he did.

"My manager didn't like the sound I wanted to create," he confessed, "so I gave up on trying to make it on my own. Over time, though, I learned to be satisfied with helping other artists with their own music, putting my own touches on it, and letting them take most of the credit."

"Well, not all of it," she assured him amiably. "Your artists' albums are always so much better than anybody else's in the country, and you really gave G Major Records a good name." Here they stopped, almost as if by agreement. "I was really sorry to hear that it closed up. What's gonna happen now?"

"What, for me or for the artists?"

"Whichever. I mean, both."

"Well, I'm not worried for my artists. Practically all of them are talented enough to be able to get picked up pretty quickly by other studios and get new contracts."

"And you?" He looked at her when she said this, and saw that her eyes and voice were full of genuine concern. He sighed.

"…Well, I'm kind of taking a break right now."

"Yeah, you have been working kind of nonstop lately. But you are gonna go back to producing, aren't you? I mean that there are artists out there who probably won't be able to do well without you. Look at Jude Harrison, for instance. You've been producing her since she started out nearly two years ago as a contest winner, and now her second album's just gone double platinum."

He remembered when he had found that out, on his last day in Thailand. He had seen her picture on the front of every newspaper and magazine, and had felt such pride that something he had created had been so successful, and yet, there was still a pang in his heart every time he saw her face, or heard her voice. He had tried his hardest to forget her, but she only seemed to surface in his thoughts more than ever. But when he looked up, he saw the girl still there, watching him curiously. Tommy suddenly felt insecure, as if she had somehow read his thoughts, and knew the whole truth about him and Jude: their history, the fact that he was still in love with her, and his worry that she had already fallen for Jamie, all without him even telling her. This girl's gaze could have him crying in her arms, baring his heart and soul to her.

"Tom?"

His train of thought was broken. "What?"

"What happened to Jude?"

For all that he felt utterly exposed in front of her, he guarded his words. "Um, last I heard, she was with a friend of hers who was working on setting up a new recording company."

"Oh. Hey, you wanna meet my friend Rei?"

"Ray, like a guy?"

She laughed, an exquisite, twinkling laugh. "No, R-E-I, a Japanese girl's name."

"Oh. Ok, I guess."

"Come on. We've stayed here too long anyway." She carelessly waved a hand towards the exit, and Tommy got the sudden impulse to grab her hand and kiss it. Then, out of the blue, the girl began running, in one uninterrupted burst of energy, down the length of the entire walkway. He was put in mind of Atalanta and watched her for a moment, then broke out of his reverie and ran to catch up with her, but whenever he got close to doing so, she caught sight of him and deliberately ran faster. As they neared the exit, she began singing "And I Ran", which made him laugh. She finally stopped short a few inches from the exit, allowing him to catch him up with her and his breath. She chuckled, as she herself was breathing normally, and said, "Now you know never to try to race a track student."

"Well, how was I supposed to know that?"

"The running shoes might have given you a clue." She pointed her toe.

"Still not fair."

"Hey, man, I kind of expected that you'd still be in top shape, judging by that extremely hot bod. I mean…" She pretended to cough, but the smile was still on her face, and he knew that she had meant what she had said.

"I am, it's just that I do mainly weight training, not that much cardio."

"Yeah, your heart wouldn't be able to take it, 'cause you're an old man." She was teasing him now, but he liked it. He decided to retaliate.

"Well, how old were _you_ when Boyz Attack was at its peak?"

"Fourteen."

"Ha! I was seventeen. Wait a second, that means you're—"

"Twenty-two."

"What the? I thought you were around eighteen."

"Well, thank you. A lady always likes others to think she's younger than she really is." She smiled bewitchingly.

He had no ready retort, and so let the matter rest, but he still couldn't stop staring at her. Her eyes caught with his and held them hostage, and as he unconsciously leaned in, she seemed to respond, but quickly pulled away before they got too close and exited, looking back at him teasingly as she did so. He had nothing to do except follow her like the lovesick puppy he had turned into.

He caught her scanning the crowds of the airport terminal, her eyebrows wrinkled and her manner uncertain. He approached her from behind, but she sensed him, and said to him without even turning her head, "She's supposed to be here by now, especially since we both wasted so much time fooling around on that walkway, but she's not."

"Maybe she's just late."

"She's a stickler for punctuality, believe me. Ten minutes early is on time for her."

"Maybe you just can't tell her apart from all the other Japanese girls."

She gave a short laugh. "If it were anyone else, that might be true; but we've known each other for five years. I'd recognize her from fifty miles away." Then she smacked her forehead. "I almost forgot! My luggage."

"Oh right, mine too."

"But yours is probably only five empty suitcases."

"No. It's four empty suitcases and one full."

"Full with hair products, I bet."

"Now you're gonna pay for that!"

"Nuh-uh!" She had expected that his reaction would be to try to grab her, and consequently eluded him and ran once more, this time to the conveyor belts. He knew her tricks this time, and followed her as closely as he could, and therefore nearly crashed into her when she abruptly stopped for no apparent reason. All Tommy could see was a native girl a couple meters away, calling out something that sounded to his ear like, "Mariku!"

"REI-KUN!" Tommy's companion screamed, and weaved in a high-speed fashion through the crowd to get to Rei. When she accomplished this, which was a matter of about twenty seconds, Tommy witnessed a major glomp. (a/n: a glomp is like a severe tackle) Rei nearly toppled over from the absolute force of her friend's big-catlike hello, but was laughing uncontrollably, and so appeared to have been expecting it. They began conversing excitedly in fluent Japanese, and for a few minutes, Tommy feared that he had been forgotten; but then his heart lifted when he saw the girl waving him over.

He picked up his things as well as hers, and brought them with him, noting the girl whisper a few words into Rei's ear. Rei looked a little unsure and nervous at the message, but looked back at her and nodded. As Tommy came closer to them, his eyes met with the girl's, and she smiled more brightly, as did he. When he finally reached them, he set the bags down and moved his hands to try to express the fact that he didn't quite know how to greet them properly.

The girl pushed Rei forward. "Well, give him a hug!"

Rei immediately did so, and hung on for so long that Tommy wondered whether this was yet another of his fangirls. He gingerly began trying to unwrap her arms from around him, and she felt the pressure and let go. "I'm so sorry," she said with almost no accent and smiling, "it's just that I've heard so much about you, and you're Mariku's bishie—"

"Rei!" The girl cut her off with a dangerous look.

"What? It's not like he knows what 'bishie' means."

"What's bishie mean?" Tommy asked cautiously, though judging by the context in which it was being used, he could guess that it meant something like "Mr. Unattainable".

The girl chuckled. "Well, _literally_, it means 'hot guy' in Japanese."

"Oh, so that's not bad."

"But," added Rei mischievously, "it's also used to mean something like 'Mr. Unattainable'," which caused her friend to playfully reach out and grab her throat.

"REI-KUN!!" She began to throttle her, but only succeeded in making Rei laugh even harder. "You've just ruined my only chance of having a normal friendship with him!"

"Well, not really," Tommy assured them. The girl stopped choking Rei, and they both stared at him. "I'll still stay around if you want, even though now I know I'm hanging with a fangirl." He smiled.

"Yay!" She hugged Tommy, not nearly as enthusiastically as she had Rei, of course, but still quite enough to make him breathless. When she finally let go of him, they smiled at each other, and he suddenly found himself wishing they were alone together. But unfortunately for him, they weren't, and he suddenly heard Rei speaking behind them, ruining the moment.

"So, are we gonna eat first or come over to my house to unpack?"

The girl promptly turned her head to look at her, then back to Tommy. "Well," she confessed to him, "I kinda wanted to unload my luggage first, so I wouldn't have to go dragging it around when we went out to eat, but if you're hungry—"

"No, no, no, go ahead," Tommy interrupted. "I'll just go and look for a hotel."

The girl nodded and released him from her grip, but kept looking up at him uncertainly, as if she wanted to say something, and glanced despairingly over at Rei. The two stared at each other for a moment, and then Rei nodded her answer to the unspoken question, which only she saw and understood, in the other girl's eyes. She stepped meekly towards Tommy, clearing her throat.

"Um…I know it's kind of sudden, but would you maybe like to stay with us for the time you'll be here in Tokyo?"

Tommy looked down at the other girl, and she smiled invitingly at him. "Please??" she implored him, clasping her hands together. "We could show you around, take you to the best restaurants, have tons of fun…"

"I'd really love to, but…" He looked back at Rei. "You girls live alone, right?"

"Well, the apartment's kinda right next to my parents' house," confessed Rei. "It's the only way they'd allow me to live by myself until I got married."

"Oh." He looked down and inwardly for a moment, and then flicked his eyes back up, only to see the disappointed faces of the two girls. He could tell that they already knew his answer, but he still felt like he owed them some sort of an explanation. "Look, it's not just your parents. It's that there's paparazzi everywhere, and if they were to catch me living with two girls…"

"They'd have a field day." The girl nodded understandingly. "Right. I forgot about that."

"But," Rei broke in, "Tom, surely if they were to see you hanging with us all the time you're here in Tokyo, they'd try to put two and two together and make five."

The girl explained, "But, Rei, if they were to follow us home and see us go different places to sleep, then they'd have more cause to doubt that that was true."

"Oh. Right…But does that mean you're not going to stay with me?"

It took Tommy a few moments to think about that and fully realize what she was talking about, but when he did, he stared, utterly surprised, first at Rei and then at the girl. The two girls began chuckling between themselves, and it quickly grew into uncontrollable hilarity when they saw Tommy's still-stunned expression.

"Well," said the girl, still chuckling and ready to burst into fresh laughter if Tommy was to look at her the 'wrong' way again, "I don't think they'll really be thinking like that; and if they do, then they're real perverts."

"So you guys aren't actually…" Tommy couldn't finish the sentence, but he didn't quite need to. The girls started laughing once more.

"NO, man!" said the girl, wiping tears from her eyes, but still continuing to laugh. "Yes, we're actually closet lovers. We just lure guys into our apartment to make their twisted fantasies come true." Now Tommy was getting into the joke, and began laughing with them.

"So then, maybe you should stay with me, so they won't have thoughts like that," he joked to the girl.

"Oh, you wish, guy. No, I'm staying with Rei, no matter what they say."

"But can you just imagine my parents' faces if that did come out in the paper, though?" mused Rei. "They'd be like, 'Rei-chan, you're coming back home NOW! See, I knew it was a bad idea to let her go live with her Canadian friend Marie. Canadian friends named Marie are always so awful.'" Rei made a face that looked exactly like that of an angry Asian parent, which continued the hypothetical situation and made the others laugh even harder.

Suddenly Tommy's eyebrows knit in the middle, and he looked curiously at the girl beside him. "Wait a second. Did she just call you Marie?"

"Yeah, that's my name."

"But…are you sure she didn't she call you something else when you guys were looking for each other, like, ten minutes ago?"

The girls looked at each other pensively for a minute. "I don't remember her calling me by a different name," said Marie cautiously.

"Oh, wait, I remember!" exclaimed Rei unexpectedly. The others turned their heads to look at her. "I called you Marie-kun."

"Yeah, that was it," affirmed Tommy.  
Marie said, "You don't know anything about nihongo, do you?"

"What?" Now he was thoroughly confused.

The girls groaned. "Come on, I'll tell you all about it later," sighed Marie. "Right now,

I have to get home."

"Don't you mean you have to go to my apartment?" asked Rei.

"Oh, right," chuckled Marie. "See? I've only been back here ten minutes, and already I'm thinking of your place as mine." The two girls began picking up her luggage. Marie cast one last glance at Tommy. "See you, then."

"See you." He was reluctant to let her out of his sight, and she seemed to feel the same. Their eyes met, and Tommy got that same feeling as before, that he and Marie were the only two people in the room. But she broke away from it abruptly, and turned back to Rei. However, Tommy guessed that Rei hadn't missed that stare, because she looked between the two for a few moments, a bit confused; but then her face cleared and she smiled, and addressed Tommy.

"What do you say to meeting Marie and I at this really cool restaurant we know for some dinner after we're settled?" she suggested amiably. "You know, we can treat you to dinner, show you around…"

"Teach you Japanese," added Marie.

"Yeah, exactly. So, what do you think?"

Tommy smiled broadly when he looked upon the two expectant faces of the girls.

"Sure. Though I gotta tell you, whenever I've been in a situation like this, I was the one asking the girl out, not the other way around."

Marie came over and stood directly in front of him. "Well, how does it feel for you, being asked out?" she asked, looking up into his eyes as she did so.

He looked at her silently for a moment before answering. "…It actually feels pretty good." Her eyes captured him, and he began unconsciously leaning in to kiss her, and got a feeling of déjà vu when she pulled away.

"Oh no, man, you're not getting me that easily," she smiled.

Tommy grinned. He could get used to this.

* * *

**A/N:** I wanna kill myself. I just realized that I didn't put up this chapter. I have no friggin' idea why. I'm sorry, you subscribers, you're gonna get alerts for Chapters Three to Six and they'll be identical to the ones from before. I had to delete all of them and put them all in again. I'm SO sorry.


	4. I'll Be Alright Without You

Chapter Three: "I'll Be Alright Without You"

Three weeks later, while Kwest was at work in Smith-Andrews Records, his cell started ringing. "Who is it?" Jude asked, annoyed by the interruption.

"Oh. Sorry." Kwest embarrassedly took his phone out, opened it up, and saw the caller ID—Tommy. _Yikes,_ he thought. _Could he have called at a worse time? Great, now I'm gonna have to lie to Jude so she won't know who it is._ "Um…I have to take this outside."

"Who is it?" Jude asked again, this time with interest.

"It's a…potential producer for the label." _Well, that's not a total lie._

"Oh. Well then, you can stay here to talk. I won't mind."

"…Yeah, well, this guy's paranoid. He doesn't want anyone listening in on his business deals."

"Are you sure Paegan and Jamie would want someone like that to be an investor for the label?"

"Um, yeah. He's got lots of money." Kwest slipped out of his seat and left the studio before Jude could question him further. "All right, man, what do you wanna say??"

"Sorry, man, did I wake you up?"

"Are you kidding me? I'm working with Jude right now in the studio. Do you know how much lying it took to get me out of there alive?"

"I'm guessing, a lot?…Sorry, man, I didn't think of the time difference. I just called for a chat, but if you're working, then I guess I'll call back."

"No, we have some time. I told Jude that you were a potential producer for the label, and I wanna believe that that's true. Is it?"

Kwest heard a smile in Tommy's voice as he replied, "Yeah, I guess so, but let me let you in on a little secret. Whenever I'm coming back to Toronto, I won't be by myself. I'll have a new artist with me."

"Wait a minute, you're saying you're gonna bring an Asian artist back to Canada? Isn't there some sort of law against that?" Kwest laughed.

"No, man, she's Canadian too. She's over here in Tokyo for the moment visiting a friend of hers. Right now, I'm just letting the two of them show me around the city, 'cause you know I've never been here before, and believe me, it is so much fun!"

"Nice, Tom. I'm real glad to hear that you're not pining away of love for Jude over there."

There was quiet on the other line.

"Sorry, man."

"It's all right. No, you don't get what I'm talking about. But, man, if you could just isee/i this girl, I know you'd understand. I mean, I've spent weeks with her now, and I still don't know what it is about her that drives me crazy, but she just does."

"You sound like you're far gone."

"That I doubt, but this girl is really something. And her voice is just one word: Wow."

"How wow?"

"Wow enough for me to want to produce her."

"That's pretty wow."

"Yeah. She is." Over the phone, Kwest could hear Tommy pull over, get out of his car, and ring a doorbell. "Hey, you wanna talk to her?"

"Um, sure."

"Great. Hey, Marie, get over here and open the door already!" he called.

"Door's open, come on in!" Kwest heard a strange and laughing female voice, which he guessed was Marie's, reply.

"All right, but if you girls are only half-dressed, I'm blaming iyou!/i"

"What are you talking about? No you're not, you're gonna fall on your knees and praise the Lord, 'cause all of your naughty little fantasies would come true!" answered a different girl in whose voice one could discern a slight accent, but nothing to impede one's understanding of her English, and it, or rather, the sheer likeness of it to native English-speakers, was truly remarkable, as she was obviously not one, and most likely a girl born and raised in Tokyo.

"Shut it," answered Tommy playfully, and opened the front door. There were a few chuckles, then silence. "Whoa."

"What?" Marie asked, now sounding a bit self-conscious.

"Just—whoa. I mean…whoa."

More silence; then Rei spoke up again. "You've never seen a white girl in a kimono before, have you?"

"No. A kimono itop/i, yes; but never the full-on outfit with the three layers and that big, wide sash."

"Well," smiled Marie, "what do you think, now you see it?"

"…Whoa." They all laughed, then Marie said, "Come over here and help me tie the sash." Apparently, both Rei and Tommy obeyed the command, for Kwest heard a distinct clunking of heads and subsequent teasing reprimands of Tommy for even trying to get near Marie while she was still not fully dressed. Tommy's defense was that how was he supposed to know that Marie had only meant Rei to approach her? Their response was that Rei was the only one who knew how to tie the obi, and he should have realized that by himself. To this, Tommy had no immediate retort, but soon came up with one: Even if he had intended to undress Marie as they were implying, how on earth would he have known how to do so, since—and here he reminded them of what he himself had said not five minutes earlier—he had never even seen a woman wearing an actual kimono before, much less had the opportunity to gain experience as to learning how to undress her? Their response was one which Tommy knew he could not deny, yet he could not let them have the final word.

"And what's wrong with being a man?" he asked, in a tone that Kwest had not heard him use since he had dated Sadie.

"Now, we never said anything like that," said Marie using that same sort of voice, and even though he was over the phone, Kwest knew that the two of them were smiling at each other like they were the only people in the room. He felt rather sorry for Rei, if she had to deal with this all the time, as she probably did. However, he was distracted by a giggling and whispering which he guessed was the two girls speaking secretly to one another. After a while, it seemed they agreed on something, and Rei said in a playful voice, "Hey Tom, do you wanna _learn_ how to undress a woman in a kimono?"

"Oh no, you two hurry up and meet me outside, I'm not staying in here any longer!" Kwest laughed at his best friend's abrupt change in tone, from one of flirtation to one of joking bashfulness. It struck him as odd, though, because he had never heard Tommy act embarrassed in front of a woman before.

Marie stood firm. "C'mon, man. I'm not letting you go to a traditional party without you showing the smallest bit of appreciation for the culture."

"You know," Rei interjected, "some kimono are considered too fine to wear. They just pin them to boards and look at them as displays."

"Well, then, why don't we do that?" Tommy asked, only half playing.

"A, this thing isn't even mine, Rei lent it to me, and I'm not going to mistreat her family's heirloom, and B, I'm not going to a sakura-viewing party in a negligee."

"Really, Marie?" Tommy teased. "A negligee?"

"Well, I'm not gonna be fully traditional and wear nothing underneath."

Marie's last comment was what broke them all down laughing, including herself, and even Kwest on the other end couldn't help but to do the same. He could obviously tell how great a team these three friends were, and marveled at how close they could come to being remarkably naughty, and yet not really, since it was all in good fun. He had never imagined Tommy could ever be like this either, being friends and nothing more with women, but it was obviously a very good thing that he could now do so, and these women were therefore good for him, especially Marie.

"Come on, Tom. I want an honest opinion." Marie had calmed down now, and her voice showed her sincerity.

"Well then…" Tommy approached her and gently separated the layers, noting how each one looked on its own and how they all harmonized together, like two well-chosen voices in a duet. He tried to put them back together like they had been before, but soon gave up and let Rei take over, straightening the kimono and tying the obi. He still faced Marie, and said quietly, "It's beautiful. It's all beautiful."

"Thank you," Marie whispered. Kwest could practically see Tom's gentle smile, and the two of them get closer, especially their faces, while Rei wisely stepped away. He even hitched in his own breath out of sheer suspense, waiting for whatever would happen.

That was the precise moment that Tom remembered he was still on the phone. He took the cell out of his suit breast pocket, and held it up to his ear, worried at the silence on the other end. "Kwest, are you still there?" he asked.

Kwest inwardly groaned at the horrific timing. "Yeah, I'm still here."

"WHAT THE—Who are you talking to?!" Marie demanded infuriatedly.

"My best friend Kwest," Tom replied, now a little wary with realizing the astronomical size of the mistake he'd just made.

"You mean he's been listening in all this time?!"

"Yeah…"

"Mon Dieu!" Kwest heard Marie exclaim, then a thud, and Tommy said quickly, "Kwest, can you hold on a minute?"

"Sure." The word had barely left his mouth when the cell was put down on a nearby table and Tommy asked, "Marie, are you ok?"

"Ok?! You just had your friend listen in on this random conversation that you and I had and now he's gonna think that you and I—that we—UGH! Tom, you're such an idiot!!" Marie's fists beat softly on Tommy's chest as he picked her up, gently laughing. "What? What's he gonna think that's so bad?"

"You know," Marie answered quietly, "he's gonna think that we…" She couldn't say it out loud, but she didn't need to.

"So? What's the problem with that?" Tommy's voice became serious, and matched Marie's in volume.

"The problem is, we're not actually…"

"No, but…we could be, if that's what you want." Tommy hesitated. "Is it?"

"…I don't know…"

Tommy picked his cell phone up and said softly, "Kwest, let me call you back."

Kwest nodded as if Tommy would see it, and even though he didn't, Tommy closed up the cell. Kwest pulled away from his own, and pressed the end call button. He sat pensively for a minute, thinking about what probably happened after Tommy had hung up, and then got up and went back into the studio.

"So?" Jude asked, once the door shut. "Is the guy gonna be a producer or not?"

Kwest was still processing all that he'd just heard, and took a minute to respond to Jude's question. He thought over everything: the chemistry between Tommy and Marie, the jokes, the kimono, the likely kiss, and the consequent odds of Tommy coming back to Canada single. He wondered how Jude would take to Marie. He suddenly realized that he still hadn't given Jude an answer, and stopped thinking and smiled at her, remembering what Tommy had said to him at the very beginning of the call. "Definitely."


	5. Makes Me Wonder

Chapter Four: "Makes Me Wonder"

It was the beginning of a new workday, and Jude had just come into G Major to find Kwest getting his coffee in Hospitality and talking on his cell phone. "Marie, trust me, with that voice of yours, you'll have a contract as soon as you come back." There was a pause, as Marie apparently gave a reply that Jude couldn't hear. "Sure I'm sure! And if not me, you trust T, don't you?" He laughed at her response. "You got a point, but I mean at least when it comes to music…There you go then." He looked up to see Jude, and his eyes widened very slightly. "I gotta go, girl. Tell Tom I said bye." He flipped the cell closed and looked at Jude warily. "How much of that did you hear?"

"Enough to learn that Tommy's got a new girlfriend named Marie," she responded in a pleasant voice, but with piercing eyes. "Kwest…"

Kwest backed away defensively. "Look, I don't even know her. Tommy just put her on the phone."

"He calls you every day?"

"Sure."

"Why?"

"We're best friends. He's in Asia and loving it. Of course he's gonna call and tell me all about it." Kwest shrugged his shoulders in explanation of their friendship, and Jude felt bad. She'd forgotten what good friends Tommy and Kwest were. It would be nothing short of expected that they would still stay in touch. She only felt a little bit hurt that Kwest hadn't managed to get her to talk with Tommy as well; he was eventually to be her brother-in-law, after all.

"I'm sorry I didn't get Tommy to talk with you or anything." Jude turned to see Kwest smiling sympathetically, as if he had read her mind. "I was just getting to know this girl for myself."

"And how is she?" It killed Jude to ask the question, but if Kwest took his time to get to know this Marie, she must be special. And at the very least as a friend, if there was a new girl in Tommy's life, she should know of her.

Here Kwest grinned. "Marie? She's really sweet and friendly, and an amazing babysitter by the sound of it. If you want, I can show you what she looks like." Jude nodded a little incredulously, and Kwest shuffled through his received files until he came up with a photo, and then handed the phone to Jude. A beautiful young woman with black hair and green-brown eyes stared at her, with a smile that was both quiet and good-natured. Jude stared back at her for a minute, and couldn't even think during that time.

When her brain began to work again, she thought: _So this is who Tom's been spending his time with. No wonder he hasn't come back home._ There was something in the girl's looks that made Jude not want to stop looking at her. Marie looked so different from all the other girls whom Tommy had ever dated. She didn't fit the stereotype; instead, she shone with her own light, and undoubtedly had a personality that kept Tommy with her in Japan. Jude began to wonder what she was like in real life.

"Do you want to hear what she sounds like?" Kwest gently inquired.

Jude looked up at him. "You have a video?"

He nodded. "Tommy sent it to me. He sends me a lot of stuff with her," he smiled. "You just press right."

Jude pressed the right button, flipping through a few photos of Marie in different lightings, with a different look on her face. Either Tommy had taken to photography, or he really liked this girl. Jude preferred to think the former. Eventually, she got to a video where Tommy was standing directly in front of the camera, but one could see a broken outline of two people behind him. Jude pressed a few buttons to get to the one which played the video.

Tommy moved his hand away from what must have been the 'record' button on the camera. "Hey, Kwest, I thought you might like to see who I've been spending my time with lately." He smiled and stepped away from the camera to show two girls, one of whom Jude could immediately recognize as Marie, and the other one was obviously native to Tokyo. Jude didn't know why she was there with them, but she seemed to fit in.

Tommy glanced over at Marie and smiled. "This is Marie. She's my—" He frowned. "My…Hey, Marie, what are we exactly?"

Marie gave him a look that asked if he was stupid. "Friends, idiot!"

His eyebrows shot up. "Right, she's my friend!" He chuckled nervously and looked more than a little uncomfortable. "Right. Friend. Forgot that." He looked down at the ground, and Marie sighed and rolled her eyes, not having noticed a thing.

The native girl stepped up, and said, "Hi, I'm Rei, and I'm the reason these two met, 'cause if it wasn't for me, Marie wouldn't be over here, and Tom would be all lonely," she smirked, pointing a thumb at Tommy. Tommy gave Rei a death glare, but Marie just laughed and threw an arm over her shoulders, grinning widely.

Marie added, "And together we keep Tommy busy during the evenings so he doesn't go sleeping around." Tommy's eyes widened, and he made to grab her, but Marie laughingly pulled away. "What? It's true!"

"I know it is," Tommy replied, quickly pulling her into a hug which she freely accepted. Rei looked at the camera and winked, then walked over and ended the video. Jude stared at the screen in utter confusion for a moment or two, then looked up at Kwest. "So…Odd couple, eh?"

"Yeah," Kwest admitted. "She's always sending him mixed signals. One minute she seems to want him, and the next, she's pushing him away."

"Well, that's good…" Kwest stared at her. "For Tommy, I mean," she stuttered. "'Cause, you know, he's never had a real challenge before."

Kwest nodded. "That's right, he hasn't had that many." He was hinting that Jude was also a challenge to Tommy and therefore the both of them were important to him romantically, not just Marie, and she was glad he was trying to keep her hopes up, but she wondered if it would do any good, or if Tommy even remembered her. This Marie seemed to be occupying all his time lately.

"So, you wanna hear her sing?"

Jude's eyes widened. "She sings?" When would Marie's perfections end?

"She's got the most amazing voice. And her dancing…Well, I guess it's best for you to see." Kwest smiled admiringly as he shuffled a bit more through the phone's files until he came upon a video where Marie was holding a set of anime pajamas in one hand and had the other arm outstretched. He played it, and Marie ran out of the frame with the pajamas, but the camera followed her as she chased a little boy around the room, while he yelled in Japanese that he wouldn't go to bed and she responded in Japanese that he would.

"Have I ever told you how motherly you look when you're babysitting?" Tommy the video director asked Marie, both teasingly and fondly.

Marie laughed dryly. "Right, 'cause all mothers definitely chase their kids for ten minutes straight just to get them into their pajamas. I swear, no matter how many times I sit for Rei's siblings, I'll never get used to how many there are. Shinichi-CHAN!!" she finally caught the little boy up, kicking and yelling, in her arms and began chastising him in Japanese while Tommy laughed.

"You shut up!" she addressed the latter directly while she went down the hall to put Shinichi's pajamas on him. "And go do something to calm the other ones down. They have to go to bed soon too."

Tommy tried to get out of doing anything actually useful by calling back to her in a whine, "But I don't know what to do. I don't know these kids."

"Rei does," she reminded him.

Tommy huffed. "Rei, what do I do?" He turned the camera to show Rei, who advised him, "Put on some music."

"Great idea! Can you do that?"

"No," she smiled. "You have to do it yourself. Marie told you to."

"But these are your siblings!" he protested.

"Exactly. I had to watch them for countless nights for years. Then Marie came along and we took care of them together. Now it's your turn."

Tommy moaned. "Bring me my iPod, would you? It's in Marie's bag."

"And why is it there?" Rei playfully inquired.

"I put it in when she wasn't looking," he confessed matter-of-factly, with the air of a mischievous child who was pleased with having pulled off a prank.

"What?!" Rei laughed as she pulled the iPod out of the bag. "Why?"

"So I wouldn't have to carry anything."

"I wondered why you looked so pleased while Marie complained of not knowing why her purse was suddenly so heavy," she remarked as she handed him the iPod.

"Now you know. What type of music should I put on?"

"Something light and pop-ish. They need to hear something cute before they go to sleep."

"Well, I don't know if I have anything specifically 'cute'," he sounded as if he were rolling his eyes when he said the last word, "but there's one song that could do the trick." He scrolled quickly through his playlists and settled on one titled 'jude' (Jude's forehead furrowed in worry at the song choice within it) and played the last song.

He held the iPod out. "Put this thing in the iDock, won't you?"

Rei obeyed him, and when Marie came back into the room, she immediately recognized the song. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "You like Stacie Orrico?"

"Yeah." One could hear the smile in Tommy's voice. "She's a real cutie."

"She is," Marie agreed. "Now," she ordered, "dance with me."

Tommy groaned in pretend annoyance and handed over the camera to Rei, who took his place, then went over and stood behind Marie. She turned to look at him. "Why are you hiding?"

"I'm not dancing in front. Not after Boyz Attack."

Marie laughed and began to sing Stacie Orrico's "I'm Not Missing You". Tommy mouthed the bridge and chorus, and danced along with Marie in the same way he had danced with Jude in the headmistress's private bathroom, and Jude's heart ached at the memory. Marie danced gently yet energetically, as she moved her upper body in sync with the beats and used her arms and hands to emphasize the lyrics, while she sang with a voice containing richness and soul, and was a combination of Christina Aguilera and Kelly Clarkson, except with a smoother sound.

She was on full performance level, even though it was just for a bunch of kids, and had all of Tommy's attention as well. During the song, he got the idea to grab hold of her hands, and she moved his around as she danced. She even seemed to be grinding against him a bit, and Jude bit her lip at the girl's audacity. But at least Tommy was smiling broadly throughout the song, and sometimes had a look on his face while he watched Marie, that Jude couldn't place. Marie looked back at him innocently, and gently let go of his hands soon after the song had ended.

Then she turned and grinned evilly at the children. "Bedtime!" A cry to the negative and protestations rose up amongst them, but Marie still got the older ones to stand up and walked them to their bedrooms. Tommy picked up the younger kids, a pair of twins, and followed her, and for a moment, the two of them looked like parents. Rei was soon after called upon to help, and she ended the video.

As before, Jude stared at the screen for a minute or so before she could even think. The sheer happiness on Tommy's face when he was with Marie was enough to make her doubt herself, and wonder if she really was the right girl for him after all, or if she should give up all her claims and leave him to Marie. She involuntarily looked in the direction of Jamie's office, and sighed heavily, and tears came into her eyes. She handed the camera back to Kwest, and ran to the bathroom. Kwest looked worriedly after her, and wondered if maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to show her the videos. He wrinkled his eyebrows and rewatched them himself. He hadn't thought that there was anything that seemed particularly romantic between Marie and Tommy, but Jude had. Then again, Jude hadn't listened in to any of their conversations, so of course she wouldn't know that there was nothing more than deep friendship between them. Or was there?


	6. Girlfriend

Chapter Five: "Girlfriend"

What neither Jude nor Kwest (though probably Rei) knew was that, contrary to popular belief, Marie had been thinking very seriously about Tommy in 'relationship' terms since the moment she met him. However, after two months of acquaintance, she believed that although he often sent out signals of romantic interest toward her, his heart was for someone else, and Marie was becoming increasingly assured of the girl's identity.

Nothing was ever lost on Marie, and she knew that the way he had stayed so silent when she had first mentioned Jude Harrison to him, or how he changed the radio station in his car whenever one of her songs came on, meant that something between them had happened, and her mind was inclined to believe that it had been of a romantic nature. True, she did find it odd at first, seeing as there were seven years of age difference between the two, but that was of no consequence. Her own mother was a few years older than her father, but no one outside the family would ever have been able to tell.

When she first met him, of course, she had been, like any good Little Tommy Q fan, hopeful that she might be able to date him, but now she realized that that was impossible, she was more than ready to help him with his girl problem. However, she couldn't quite do anything to help him yet, or even mention it to him. It would have to come from Tom himself, the story she longed to hear; he would have to want to confide it in her. She could only wait for a chance for them to be alone, to see if he would want to tell her then.

That chance appeared when Rei came down with a cold. She urged them not to hang around her, but to go out and have a good time while she sweated it out (a/n: I once read about Asians having this custom of getting rid of a cold by steaming up the house and staying in the steam until they'd sweated like in a sauna), and assured them that she would be as good as new by tomorrow. Marie was secretly ecstatic, hoping that this night she could get Tom to tell her of his history with Jude. She was so focused on that point alone, that she didn't even realize until dinner was already half over that Tom didn't have Jude on his mind at all tonight. Instead, he was paying _her_ every attention, and she didn't quite know what to do. Marie knew that if she were to pull away now, he would know that something was wrong, and she couldn't create that impression. So she went along with it, yet made sure that she didn't lead him on, remembering who he was after all.

The situation became worrisome when Tom invited her up to his hotel room before (though judging by the smile on his face and the bedroom eyes, Marie feared he really meant 'instead of') dropping her off for the night at her and Rei's apartment. But she remembered what her own wishes for this evening had been, and determined that they should be fulfilled. So she accepted his invitation, and waited for the move he would make. She waited, smiling placidly and continuing to talk with him as if they were spending a regular night out, until he had gotten the hotel room door open and gently pulled her inside, which was when he took the opportunity to kiss her.

Although she had seen it coming, the kiss was still nothing like she would have ever expected, and so neither was her reaction. She wrapped her arms around him and let herself go, giving him as good as he gave. Tom, though perhaps a little surprised at the force of her reaction, was nonetheless unfazed, and closed and locked the door behind him, and maneuvered her over to the bed. Once in a horizontal position, the make-out session turned, if possible, even more serious, and Marie was fairly sure that it would lead to something else if she didn't do anything to stop it. So she adjusted the angle of her head and the intensity of her kisses so that almost imperceptibly at first, but very gradually, she and Tom pulled apart, and they could look into each other's eyes. It was then that Tom realized what he was doing, and he jerked away from her. "Marie, I—I'm sorry. I swear I didn't mean to…I'm so sorry." He ran his hands through his hair and began pacing frantically back and forth across the room.

Marie cracked a half-smile, and grabbed a hold of Tom's sleeve. "It's ok, Tom."

He looked back at her with large, frightened eyes. "Are you sure?"

Her smile widened. "I'm sure, Tom. It's fine. Come, sit down." She indicated the part of the bed right next to her. He looked paranoid for a moment, but then sat down. "I'm sorry."

"It's ok," she repeated. She laid a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to watch her worriedly for a few minutes, his breathing still raspy from pure nervousness. Marie couldn't bear to see him in this state, and tilted him into her arms, holding him close to give him the comfort she knew he needed but was too afraid to ask for. He knew what was good for him and responded immediately, hanging on to her as if she were his lifeline. Several minutes passed before his breathing calmed, and Marie felt he was better. She loosened her hold, and Tom pulled away to face her with a look of sheer gratitude. She smiled and took his hands in hers, gently feeling for the guitar calluses on his fingertips. Marie knew that this was the moment to make her request.

"Tom"—she looked up at him, and their eyes locked—"I want you to tell me about Jude." She anticipated his actions, and held tight onto his hands even as he tried to pull away.

"H-how do you know about Jude?" he choked out, his breathing raspy once more.

"I don't, that's the problem. But she was your artist for the past two-and-a-half years. I would have expected you to at least mention her, at best, reminiscing about the good old days when you were making her albums, and at worst, moaning about what an annoying person she was to produce. But you haven't told me anything. You don't even listen to her songs on the radio." By this time, Tom already had a look of guilt on his face, and Marie knew a confession would come soon.

"Marie…" She let go of his hands, and they went to cover his face. "You don't want to know," he told her through his fingers.

"Yes, I do," she assured him. "I already know you're in love with her." The fingers twitched involuntarily, and she had a feeling he was blushing. "Come on," she coaxed. "What harm could it do to tell me?"

"It's not that, it's just that the story's not worth telling."

"That's a lie, and you know it."

"It wouldn't do any good." He took his hands down from his face and looked at the bedspread absorbedly.

"I want to know." She curved her hand under his chin, tilted his head up, and looked directly into his eyes, her own burning with curiosity, and he knew he couldn't refuse. He looked away and sighed deeply. "It's nearly three years' worth of history," he reminded her.

"We've got all night," she responded.

"Well…" He looked off into the past for a moment. "I guess I should say that it all started with the Instant Star competition, but for me, it started the day after the finale. That was when I first met her." He looked over at Marie, smiling wistfully. "I can still remember what she was like that day. Hair red as a fire engine, and an attitude to match. She'd won the contest with the musical ancestor of "24 Hours", and it was great, but it still had so far to go before she could perform it. So the first week I was trying to convince her to change it, and she was resisting. I was, as she said, everything she hated about music, all mainstream pop, and she wouldn't listen. But she eventually broke down, and rewrote the song in time for her first real public performance." He leaned back and grinned. "Good times. It was all uphill from there.

"I knew she had a crush on me. Everyone knew. Even that little dancing-girl dashboard toy I had on the soundboard knew, I bet. And we just spent so much time together that we became like _this_"—he wrapped his middle finger around his index finger—"and I guess it was around that time when I grew to like her. Like, _really_ like. But I didn't realize it until…Shay came along." He sighed angrily, while Marie recalled the teen rapper and what he ultimately did to Jude. "He walked into G Major like he owned the place—might as well have, the way we waited on him—and the first thing he saw was Jude. And he just _had_ to have her. And he got her." Tom's voice suddenly detached emotionally from the story. "He didn't deserve to have her, and he didn't keep her, but he got her. I had to watch while he recorded "Waste My Time" with her, I had to watch through the glass while they made eyes at each other, I listened to her miss him while he was off on tour, knowing that he wouldn't stay faithful, yet I wasn't able to do a thing.

"It was that bitch Eden." His voice regained its warmth, and Marie wondered why. "She couldn't wait until Shay was done dumping Jude. She just _had_ to come in and make it worse for her, to make her run out where the cameras were, making it all into one big publicity muck-up. Then she ran out…" His voice broke, and he closed his eyes. She put an arm over his shoulders, and he accepted, regaining his strength. "She ran out into an alley, and I followed her. It was pouring rain. I took my jacket off and put it over her. She was crying, asking me why guys kept breaking her heart. She wanted to know what she was doing wrong. I didn't know. So I kissed her.

"I couldn't hide it anymore. Somewhere along the line, I'd fallen in love with her, and I just couldn't stand to watch her cry over a jerk who'd broken her heart, so I just grabbed her and…you can't imagine how good it felt. I had everything I wanted in my arms right then, but I was stupid." He began crying. "I let her go, I told her to go inside. After a while, after the party was over, I went to her, I told her we couldn't be together. I could've had her from back then, but I pushed her away. What's wrong with me, Marie?" Marie pulled him close, shushing him. "Nothing's wrong with you," she assured him. "You were just scared of what you felt."

"She hated me," he suddenly declared, going off on a new tangent. "She hated me for what I did; she hated me for dating Sadie behind her back. When she went off on tour, she hated me."

This was far too much for Marie. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up. Who's Sadie?"

"Her sister."

"Her WHAT?!"

"I started dating her older sister right before she went on tour." Marie pulled away from Tom and smacked him upside the head, and he smiled at the action, a bit of relief from all the crying he had done. "I'm not proud of it, but Sadie was a nice girl to date. She was hot, intelligent, and not afraid of making a fool of herself in public," he chuckled, remembering their first 'date' at the karaoke bar. "And I cared about her. Not really like a boyfriend should care about his girl, I guess, but as a person. She was actually pretty amazing." He smiled fondly in memory of the good times.

"I didn't treat her right, though. I liked her, but I kept blowing off our dates just to stay on late at work. I spent one week with her in Italy while Jude was on tour, but then afterwards, I focused more on Jude's sophomore album. But Sadie thought I was cheating on her." He shook his head. "She didn't trust me at all. Ironic, really. She was the only girl I'd actually wanted to stay faithful to. Though that may have mainly been because she was Jude's sister," he mused. "…Nah. It was 'cause of herself. But Sadie wouldn't have believed that. Neither did Jude, come to think of it. When Sadie and I broke up, Jude thought I actually had cheated on Sadie, and called me a "Liar Liar"." He smiled as if a pleasant memory had come back to him. "She wrote that song about me, before I told her the truth. I couldn't believe she honestly thought I was that low, but apparently she did. She didn't talk to me for a week after we'd broken up. I hated that week. I hated hating her. In the end," he grinned contentedly, "I locked us in a room until we talked things out. It went well. Very well, in fact."

He leaned back onto the bed, folding his hands and placing them behind his head, with a goofy grin on his face that Marie wondered at for a few minutes, before it dissolved, and he continued with the story.

"The problem was, Jude was with her lead guitarist at the time. Spied." He spat out the name as if the guy had done him wrong. "God, what a kid."

"Spied, as in Vincent Spiederman from SME?"

"Exactly. He's married to Karma now, they're on that MTV wedding show, but last year, he and Jude used to be together. Though nobody would ever have guessed it, he was always so immature. They were more like…Bart and Lisa Simpson, than any real couple. Ugh. I don't know what she ever saw in him."

"A distraction?" Marie suggested.

Tom looked over at her sullenly. "She could've done better than _him_. Anyway, they lasted a lot longer than I thought they would have. But in the end, I was there for Jude, and some stuff happened between us that…"—The smirk came back onto his face, but soon disappeared—"confused me to no end. Right after we recorded "White Lines" and showed it to Darius, we kissed, but she pulled straight away. I didn't get it, and I still don't."

Marie looked down at him, and wondered for a minute what reason Jude might have for doing that. "Hmm…Exactly how long after she and Spied broke up was that kiss?"

"Later on the same day, I think."

Marie made a face at her friend's density. "Well, _that_ might have been it." She shoved him aside, and fell onto the bed next to him, grabbing his hand and capturing it between hers. "So tell me what happened next."

He looked inwardly for a minute before biting his lip, and speaking as if he was announcing a death, "Next was Jamie." He sighed and closed his eyes with the pain of remembrance. "A serpent in the egg if there ever was one."

"Why? What'd he do?" If Tom was going to make an allusion to Shakespeare, the guy he was talking about had to have done something extreme.

"He's Jude's childhood friend, and he always hung around her like a puppy. He was desperately in love with her, from long before I met either of them. She never did really like him, but she sure warmed up to him after she and I broke up."

"You guys got together??"

He smiled. "Yeah. On the week of her eighteenth, 'cause, well, she was turning eighteen, and finally, no one could do anything about us, even if they'd wanted to. It didn't matter, though." He laughed bitterly. "No, she ended it on her birthday night, when she found Sadie and me alone in a hotel room, in a liplock."

"What the—?!"

"Nothing happened, nothing happened," he quickly assured her. "It was just that Kwest had just told Sadie he loved her, and she'd gotten freaked out and kissed me 'to see if she still had any feelings for me'." He rolled his eyes. "But Sadie didn't know about Jude and me until after the fact, when I told her. Jude blamed me for not telling, I blamed Sadie for not explaining to Jude that it was her mistake, 'cause it was, after all, and it was all just one big misunderstanding, but the end result was that Jude wouldn't take me back. And _Jamie_ was there," he huffed angrily, "all trustworthy, all ready to put Jude's heart back together. And he'd been waiting. He'd just been _waiting_ for me to screw up, and even though it hadn't even been me this time, Jude acted as if it had been, and went to that boy next door. I just couldn't take it. So I left."

He breathed deeply for a few minutes, as if to diffuse his anger, then turned to Marie and offered her a smile. "So that's it. My history with Jude."

Marie looked at him curiously. "Why do I feel like there's so much more that I haven't heard?"

He laughed. "Well, those were the parts with me and Jude. What, do you want to know everything?"

"YES!! Start over from the beginning, and don't leave out a single word."

Tom moaned, but obeyed, this time mentioning everything from Jude's _Solid_ cover to her "Stupid Girl" cover, to the time she pushed him in the hot tub, to Patsy's death, to Angie, to Jude's music catalogue crisis, to the scene that they'd had on her doorstep, which had been the last time he'd seen her. He didn't finish the real story until the wee hours of the morning, at which time he immediately flopped back onto the bed in order to breathe. Marie grinned at him.

"So, don't you think you're better off now for having told me everything?"

Tom gave her a look. "Not really. What do I get in return for having talked my lungs out?" Marie gently leaned over and kissed him soundly.

"…That could work."

Marie chuckled softly and laid her head on his chest to sleep.

The next morning, Marie was awakened twice: the first time by Tom when he gently slid out of bed so as not to disturb her (it obviously didn't work, but it was the thought that counted) and went into the shower, immediately after which Marie fell back to sleep.

The second awakening was about half an hour later, by her phone's ringtone of the Korean boy band DBSK (though in Japan, they were called TVXQ) singing the song "Hug"—Rei's favorite. Marie groaned and answered the call.

"You slept with him, didn't you?" Rei asked eagerly as soon as Marie picked up.

"And a very good morning to you too, Rei," Marie answered, frowning at her friend's forwardness.

"Skip the small talk. You did, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't."

"You're lying."

"Rei, have I ever lied to you?"

"No…"

"So when I say that I didn't sleep with Tom, what should that mean to you?"

"You didn't sleep with Tom," Rei answered slowly.

"Good!" she cheered in a sarcastic voice.

"I still don't believe you."

Marie rolled her eyes. "Rei, do you honestly think I would sleep with Tom?"

"Uh, YEAH! Look at him!"

"Rei, he's already taken!"

"He's what?!"

"I'll tell you everything when we get there." Marie closed up her cell and sighed irritatedly. Despite her age and emotional maturity in all other matters, her best friend often acted like a hormonal teenager when it came to their dealings with the opposite sex. _Especially_ in terms of sex itself.

"Who were you talking to?" Tom asked, as he came out of the bathroom in a Turkish bathrobe and began to pick out clean clothing from the bureau.

Marie looked up at him. "Rei. She thinks we slept together."

Tom turned around and smiled. "But we did sleep together."

She gave him a look.

"Ok, not like that."

"Yeah, I know, and now I have to go over there to tell her what we did instead of having sex."

"Oh, but that's so much less fun."

"Tom!!"

"What?"

"I'm not gonna have Rei think badly of me!"

"Why would she think badly of you? I mean, look at me!" he smirked.

Truth be told, this was the first time Tom had ever actually gotten to enjoy this predicament. The girls on the morning after had never been like Marie, and he found it rather fun to tease her about being in the same situation as they had all been.

She glared at him. "This isn't a joke, Tom," she told him, and he suddenly saw that she was upset, and disappointed in him. He immediately felt ashamed, and went over to her side. "So maybe it isn't, but it'll be all right, ok? Don't worry." He pressed a kiss to her hair. "Get into the shower, and I'll see if there's anything of mine you can wear. We'll go out and get breakfast, and then we'll go to Rei's."

Marie smiled. "You're right. It's not like any paparazzo's gonna care about your whereabouts, anyway. You're just a washed-up ex-boybander."

"Hey!" Tom playfully smacked her bottom in light chastisement as she went off laughing to the bathroom.

Marie thrust the latest tabloid on the table that evening. "Look at that."

Tom took it and gave the front page a blank stare. "If you're expecting me to be able to read it, I'm sorry to say that, notwithstanding both Rei's and your excellent tutoring skills—"

"Not that, idiot. Look at the freaking picture!" She had no difficulty in insulting him at the moment, not in the mood she was in.

Tom looked beyond the brightly colored characters (a/n: I mean characters as in writing), squinted, and then let out an "Ohh."

"Yeah, ohh," she mocked. "You and your stupid fame! It's _your_ fault I got into this dang tabloid!"

Tom frowned at her. "Hey, don't blame it all on me. I didn't force you to come to my hotel room."

"But if you hadn't suggested it, I wouldn't have _come_ to your hotel room!"

"How do I know you wouldn't have? All you wanted was a confession."

"If you knew, then why didn't you tell me anywhere else?"

"My room would have been more private!"

"That's the freaking problem!"

"GUYS!" Rei finally yelled out. "You both got yourselves into this mess, now you help each other get out of it!" The two turned to glare at her, not wanting to take her good advice, and then she went off grumbling to the bathroom to get aspirin for the headache they were giving her. Then they engaged in a glaring contest.

Marie softened first. "I'm sorry, Tom. I was just really ticked off that I got put in the papers like all the other girls."

Tom's face broke out into a warm smile. "You're nothing like the other girls," he assured her.

This made her beam. "Thanks."

"I never let any of the other girls borrow my clothes."

Marie rolled her eyes, but leaned in when Tom pulled her close for a hug. They stayed like that for a minute, before her brain sparked and she turned to face him. "So wait. What are we going to do, now that all of Tokyo thinks we're a couple?"

"Hey," Tom protested, "Tokyo doesn't think we're a couple. Tokyo just thinks we slept together."

"But if we keep hanging out, Tokyo's going to think we really _are_ a couple," she told him. This was the truth, and Tom had to think for a minute before giving her an answer.

"Why don't we go back home, then?"

Marie was shocked. "Really?"

"Yeah. Why not? We can go get you a record contract at Paegan's new label."

"Yay!" she chirped. "But, won't you be facing Jude?"

"Well, I'll have to sooner or later," he pointed out reasonably, "but," smiling, "the only real reason I'd go back now would be my new best friend."

Marie made a pleased noise, and cuddled closer into his arms. Tom gazed down at her adoringly, and their faces met in a kiss.

"And girlfriend?" she gently inquired, after she had pulled away for air.

"And girlfriend," Tom confirmed, holding her tighter and kissing her again.

_Back at Smith-Andrews Records, the next day held a great surprise for some of its employees, when the Canadian press caught wind of the __Tokyo Tommy Q__ sighting (a/n: say the underlined part ten times fast, lol)._

"_Well, I'll be damned," Kwest murmured to himself, staring at the front page of the tabloid. _

"_What?" Jude asked casually, just walking in to get her coffee._

_Kwest hid the paper behind him. "Oh, nothing."_

"_Come on, Kwest, you don't have to pretend you don't read girlie magazines," Jude teased, stealing it from him, but as soon as she got a look at the cover, she dearly wished she hadn't._

"_I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation," Kwest quickly offered._

"_Oh really? What can you tell me that'll be any different from the story on page three?" She flipped the magazine so that the picture was staring him in the face, and when he saw it like that, he honestly couldn't think of anything to say. _

_The photo had been taken in the morning, and could actually be called charming by anyone but the two people looking at it at the moment. The subjects, Marie and Tommy, were exiting the main entrance of Tommy's hotel, holding hands and smiling. A similar photo, made into an inset in the corner, had them kissing. _

_Even more shocking than the photos themselves were the clothes that Marie was wearing. The slacks were hers, but they looked like they had been worn the night before, and 'her' shirt was an undershirt of Tommy's that she had tied in the back with a hair elastic. It was very clear that she had spent the night in Tommy's hotel room. _"Not far gone, my ass,"_ Kwest thought, remembering what Tommy had said to describe his attachment to Marie when he had first mentioned her to him. He had noticed the chemistry between them even back then; and couldn't believe that he'd gone along with Tommy's blatant lie for so long. He soon realized that that had been because he had _wanted_ to believe him, for Jude's sake, and he now looked at her, seeing her reaction, which had yet to completely unfurl._

_Jude was still staring at the tabloid cover with a helpless expression. She was trying to remind herself to stay strong, and to not show how much this affected her, but she didn't have to act in front of Kwest, and so she let a few tears slip. Then she threw down the magazine on the counter, and went into the studio, grabbing her journal and writing in a fury. Within five minutes, she had a song, and she went back out of the studio only to drag Kwest into it, so they could start the day's recording with a new single. _


	7. When I Come Home Again

Chapter Six: "When I Come Home Again"

Marie feigned scorn as she surveyed the cool, clean, technological, businesslike, bachelor atmosphere that was Tommy's apartment. "I can't _believe_ you're expecting me to live here with you."

"I'm not expecting anything," the man responded from down the corridor. "I just thought that, as my new _girlfriend_"—Tommy put an emphasis on the word so as to lightly tease her—"you might wanna move in." He came back into the room holding up a key. "Here. Door key. Locks both top and bottom." He dangled it in front of her face. "You want?" Tired of the keepaway game she knew he would play, Marie instead patiently held out her palm, which Tommy unceremoniously dropped the key into as soon as he saw the lack of enthusiasm in her eyes. "So…"

"I'll ask for the tour later. Can you show me to bed?"

Tom raised an innuendo-excited eyebrow.

"Not like that." Marie rolled her eyes. "Unless you couldn't tell by that night in your hotel room, although we are 'boyfriend and girlfriend', there will be no sex."

"What type of live-in boyfriend/girlfriend relationship is that?" Tom protested.

Marie gave him a 'Boy, don't you mess with me' look.

"Fine. You can take the guest bedroom," he pretended to give in, even though he had secretly been hoping for that outcome all the while. He wasn't about to let her know that, though. "…As long as you're ok with the fact that it's right next to mine."

Marie closed her eyes and said tiredly, "Tom, I realize that you're all wound up at the moment, but I am utterly frigging exhausted due to the thirteen-hour flight we just went through, and I really can't take your jokes right now."

"Sorry. Should I just let you sleep?"

"That would be great. Dang internal clock needs resetting…" Tommy quickly led her through the apartment to the guest bedroom, where she immediately plopped down on the bed, causing his face to break into a gentle smile. He tucked her in, then left her and went off to his own room to unpack quietly. He began thinking while he worked. They would probably need to go to Smith-Andrews Records tomorrow, to get Marie that contract he had promised to get her.

As could be expected, the trip there wasn't what he was worried about—Kwest had already given him directions—as much as the people he would see there. He was grateful that both Kwest and Sadie had migrated over so soon after G Major had been closed down, so that he had at least two friendly faces to look forward to seeing. Jude and Jamie were an entirely different matter. Both Kwest and Sadie (she had picked up Kwest's phone for him a few times and talked with Tommy as well) had told him that Jude had been acting strangely all the while he had been in Asia, especially after he'd found Marie. It could not be denied that his heart had leapt at the news, but seeing as she hadn't broken up with Jamie, Tommy had to assume one of two opinions: either Jude had lost hope in the idea of the two of them ever being together, or she honestly no longer cared because she was happier with Jamie. Both Kwest and Sadie urged him to believe the former, and Tommy did so. He himself believed—even more than that, he _knew_—that the two of them were meant to be together, and he was prepared to prove it to Jude if he had to, even though coming into Smith-Andrews Records with a new girlfriend on his arm might suggest the opposite…

He threw a glance at the wall that separated him and Marie at the moment. This girl meant more to him than words could express, for it was no ordinary woman who would willingly help him out with his Jude situation. Or who'd deal with him acting like a little kid next to her throughout a transcontinental flight, either. He smiled at the memory. The flight attendant whom he had met on his flight to Tokyo had turned out to be Marie's elder sister—Jillian, he thought the name was—and she had grinned from ear to ear when she had seen them together. All the flight attendants had, in fact, as they were still Little Tommy Q fangirls as well. They alternately waited on Tommy hand and foot, and teased him and Marie about being together, and even though it had made the two of them uncomfortable at first, they had eventually accepted it, and Tommy had even felt a secret pleasure at the idea of them being seen as a couple. He always had. Marie was the only girl he would ever want to have as a girlfriend…Until he got Jude, of course. He wondered at the pause his brain had gone through when it was finishing the thought, and then wondered at the wondering. He then realized that the wondering was dangerous, and decided not to wonder any more. (a/n: I just like the word wonder, lol)

Fortunately, Marie ended Tommy's over-thinking as she danced happily into his room. "What happened to sleep?" he asked, looking at her quizzically, marveling at the shortness of her nap.

"I went for progressive relaxation instead," she answered airily, earning a newly mystified look from Tommy. "It's a mental exercise that's as a good as a nap, but it only takes about fifteen minutes," she explained, and cocked her head suddenly to the side. Her mouth curled at one side into a semi-smile. "And I also realized that I was actually more hungry than sleepy." This Tommy understood, and continued his steady gaze on her. He knew what was coming next, but pretended the opposite.

Marie wrapped her arms around his neck entreatingly—exactly like a girlfriend was supposed to, he noted—and half-asked, half-ordered, "Take me to dinner." She leaned in to elaborate: "And pay for my half of the check." She pulled away with an evil smile. _Well-played,_ Tommy thought, relishing in the game that they had invented in this situation, and took care as he planned his own move.

"But you have your own money," he griped, hoping that he had had success in hiding the smile in the voice.

"Oh, come on, you know you can afford it," she answered, a commonsensical tone having entered her otherwise playful voice.

"But you always used to pay for your half before," he countered.

"Yes, that was _before_, but aren't things different now? Aren't we boyfriend and girlfriend?" she reminded him.

"I know, but—" Tommy's brain took a random split-second thought and went with it, putting his mouth on Autopilot. "Well, if I'm gonna be paying for your half of everything from now on, then you can very well stay in my room while you live here," he demanded.

"Sure." Marie's voice was casual, but her face betrayed her confusion in a _Wth_? sort of look.

Tommy was inwardly surprised at himself, and wondered why he would change his mind from the agreement they had reached earlier, but as Marie looked up at him, he realized why. He didn't want to lose sight of this girl for a minute. His exterior lost all of its pretense, and he grinned affectionately at her, throwing a yielding arm around her shoulders. "Fine. I'll take you out."

Marie smiled in relief at the return to normality, and left to go dress for dinner. Tommy watched her go, then began to move around, figuring out how he was going to have his entire wardrobe fit into half its normal space. He had to make some room if Marie was going to have her stuff in here as well…

The next day, Tommy woke up from a very pleasant sleep and reached out, but he couldn't find what he wanted—Marie. He smiled at the thought of her. She really had put him to bed last night, in all senses of the word but, of course, the conjugal. If there was anyone in the world who knew how to cuddle just the right way, it was her. Tommy rolled over for a minute, not wanting to get out of bed yet, but then suddenly he wondered what time it was. The daylight shone bright and warm onto him, yet he hadn't heard his alarm go off. He propped himself up on his elbow to see the clock, and was jolted wide awake when he learned that it was half an hour past when he was supposed to have gotten up. He had never slept through his alarm before. He was worried for a minute, wondering whether he needed to buy a new clock, but grinned when he realized what must have happened. Marie had repaid him for letting her sleep in the day before. He chuckled at her version of payback, and got into the shower. He had to go wash off Marie's scent, which had rubbed off from her onto him during the night, even if he privately didn't want to get rid of it.

As he was getting dressed, he became aware of the aroma of pancakes cooking. Eggs soon followed, and as Tommy walked into the kitchen, Marie was beginning to lay strips of bacon into a frying pan. "You do realize it's not the weekend, right?" he asked her rhetorically. The two of them had been friends for so long that now they no longer exchanged any morning greetings.

Marie turned and faced him with a smile. "I know, but whenever I have to go and accomplish something big, I always make a huge breakfast. Like when I had my interview for U of T (a/n: University of Toronto. They have interviews, right?). You should've seen the spread I laid out that morning." She involuntarily widened her own eyes at the memory.

"Well, you'll be fine," Tommy reassured her, wrapping her up in a comforting hug, and enjoying the feel of her arms around him, before quickly remembering the bacon and turning his attention to it himself. After a while, he noticed the buffet on the table: four different types of pancakes, a huge bowl of fruit salad, not to mention the eggs (of which Marie had also prepared different types; she was currently making an omelette with bits of breakfast sausage and Virginia ham, to go with the scrambled and hard-boiled eggs already set out) and bacon, and fresh-made coffee. "Remind me why you're not a hotel chef?"

"Because I wanted to be a singer, and that is what we're trying to pursue today, isn't it?" she reminded him.

Tommy shut his eyes and collapsed onto one of the countertop chairs around the kitchen island. "Right. Of course. How could I forget?"

"Tom…" Marie folded the omelette half over itself before removing it entirely from the skillet and placing it onto a plate, all in a most professional way, and laying it on the table. Then she quickly sat down beside Tommy, and gave him a sideways hug. "Are you sure you'll be able to get through this?" she asked him.

"I think I might get indigestion if I try to eat the whole breakfast."

"Not that."

He shrugged. "Well, I have to get back to work someday. I don't want to just go cruising around Asia for the rest of my life. But I do want you to meet Kwest and Sadie." He paused. "And Paegan. Paegan's pretty cool."

"Well, if Paegan's too busy, I guess Jamie will have to give you your contract."

Marie rolled her eyes. "Anyone else worth mentioning?"

Tommy thought for a moment. "No."

"What about Jude?"

There was a sharp intake of breath at the mention of her name, and Tommy realized he couldn't get away with avoiding her, not even verbally. He had been trying to do so for some months, even forbidding himself to think of her, and actually, those months, or at least the ones he'd shared with Marie and Rei, had been great, but ever since Marie had forced the truth out of him, all of the feelings had come rushing back, the anger, the disappointment, the jealousy, the insecurity, etc., and truthfully he was nowhere near sure he'd be able to get through the day, but when he looked at the girl next to him, her deep green emerald eyes watching him worriedly, he knew he would. Having Marie next to him was all he needed.

"So, are you ready?" she asked him.

He smiled, deeply and genuinely. "Yeah." He reached out and took up the plate of banana pancakes. "I'm ready." Marie smiled, happy because he was happy, and she needed no more words from him to know that all would be well.

* * *

**A/N:** It's a bit of a filler, but still. Tarie fluff fun to write! Well, in any case, don't worry, I'll write all four of them (Jade and Tarie) meeting up soon.


	8. YouTube playlist AN

Hey guys, I'm still working on the fic, sorry. Actually, I'm trying to work on a novel that I've been trying to write for about four years now, but let's not go there. O-o

So. Like anybody, I'm a great YouTube fan, and I've recently begun to make playlists, and I made one for this fic. A little thing, but I like it. It's kinda fun, connecting the music in the fic to the writing. I suppose the text seems separate from the songs, but I usually wrote the chapters with those songs in mind. Believe me. Especially since this is Instant Star. I mean, it's awesome, but what is it without the music? A soap opera, and that's not quite a good thing. XD

To get to the playlist, just search 'sppsdlismartgrl' on YouTube, go to my playlists, and click 'Play All' on the one titled, wouldn't you know it, "(Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame". If you want, reread the work with the playlist in another window or tab. It really helps, in my opinion. In any case, it's a good listen. =D

Laters, people.


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